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Fever-Sky game drew big ratings
(AP) -- The Indiana Fever-Chicago Sky game Sunday averaged 3.31 million viewers on NBC and Peacock to make it the most-watched regular-season WNBA game since the league’s inaugural season in 1997.
It also was the third-most watched regular-season game ever and peaked at 3.82 million viewers. That is behind only the June 21-22, 1997 opening weekend games that featured the New York Liberty-Los Angeles Sparks (5.04 million) and Charlotte Sting-Phoenix Mercury (3.59 million), also both on NBC.
Caitlin Clark and the Fever continue to be the league’s top draw. They also have set all-time viewing records this season for games on CBS, ESPN and Amazon Prime Video.
Against the Sky, Clark made a career-high eight 3-pointers and scored 37 points in the Fever’s 113-90 victory. Teammate Kelsey Mitchell added 30.
That game was the first meeting since Chicago’s DiJonai Carrington fouled Indiana’s Sophie Cunningham on a breakaway in the Fever’s 90-86 victory on Aug. 8. Carrington was ejected for the Flagrant 2 foul.
There were no such incidents between the two in the rematch.
But there was controversy. Former NBA center Enes Kanter Freedom attended as a spectator and was ejected in the third quarter after he and the Sky’s Natasha Cloud exchanged words. Freedom has since been banned from Sky home games.
Williams sisters to team up at U.S. Open
NEW YORK (AP) -- Serena and Venus Williams are teaming up again at the U.S. Open.
The sisters will play doubles at the tournament after receiving a wild card Wednesday into the event they won twice.
Serena Williams returned to tennis this summer after a four-year absence, and the sisters were set to play at Wimbledon before Serena had to withdraw after injuring her knee in her singles loss. They played in the Cincinnati Open, losing in the first round.
The Williams sisters won the 1999 and 2009 U.S. Open doubles titles and are 27-7 in their nine appearances. They last played in 2022, losing in the first round in what was expected to be Serena’s final match in Flushing Meadows.
Serena, 44, played with Carlos Alcaraz in mixed doubles Tuesday, winning one match before losing in the quarterfinals. Venus, 46, is entered in the women’s singles event.
The Williams sisters teamed to win 14 Grand Slam doubles titles along with Olympic gold medals in 2000, 2008 and 2012. They shared the No. 1 ranking in women’s doubles for eight weeks.
Serena opted not to compete in singles at the U.S. Open, where she won six of her 23 Grand Slam singles titles. But she felt good enough to accept wild cards into both doubles events.
She and Venus won their first U.S. Open doubles title the same year the younger Williams won her first singles championship there. The height of their dominance as a team would come about a decade later.
They won the Australian Open and Wimbledon in 2009, before picking up their second title in Flushing Meadows later that summer. They won in Australia again in 2010 and then picked up the French Open title, making the sisters the holders of all four major trophies at the time.
The first round of the women’s doubles tournament begins Sept. 3.
Busses joining Padres’ new ownership group
SAN DIEGO (AP) -- Joey and Jesse Buss are part of the San Diego Padres’ new ownership group led by José E. Feliciano and Kwanza Jones.
The youngest Buss heirs’ participation in the group already had been widely reported by The Associated Press and other outlets, but they confirmed it Wednesday in a statement to ESPN.
Joey and Jesse Buss, who grew up in San Diego County, were executives with the NBA’s Los Angeles Lakers before their family sold its majority ownership stake to Mark Walter last year. Walter also is the owner of the back-to-back World Series champion Los Angeles Dodgers, the Padres’ longtime archrivals in the NL West.
The ownership group led by private equity billionaire Feliciano and Jones is closing its purchase of the Padres this month at an MLB-record valuation of $3.9 billion.
The Buss brothers formed Buss Sports Capital last year to invest their substantial windfall from the sale of the Lakers, who were then flipped by Walter this month to a group led by Josh Kushner and Bob Iger.
The Buss brothers confirmed their new venture with the Padres one week after five of the six Buss heirs voted to sell their 17.8% minority ownership stake in the Lakers to Kushner and Iger.
Jeanie Buss, the Lakers’ governor since the death of their father in 2013, is contesting her five siblings’ desire to sell its remaining interest in the NBA franchise purchased by Jerry Buss in 1979.
Gogel suspended for betting on golf
(AP) -- Matt Gogel has been suspended for six months for betting on golf. The PGA Tour said Wednesday none of the wagers were for tournaments he was playing.
Gogel, whose best finish on the PGA Tour Champions this year was a runner-up in the Senior British Open, will be eligible to return on Feb. 22, 2027.
Gogel, 55, called it an honest mistake.
“In 2024 and 2025, I unknowingly violated the PGA Tour policy by placing small, recreational wagers on golf,” Gogel said in a statement provided by the tour. “I want to be clear that these wagers were not placed on regular PGA Tour events, PGA Tour Champions events or any tournament in which I participated.”
The tour did not disclose details of his violation, though his statement would indicate the wagers involved major championships.
Gogel, who grew up in Kansas, was best known on the PGA Tour for shooting 40 on the back nine in 2000 when Tiger Woods overcame a seven-shot deficit in the final seven holes at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am for his sixth straight victory.
Gogel atoned for that two years later by winning at Pebble Beach, his lone PGA Tour title. He worked briefly for Golf Channel and CBS, returning to competition when he turned 50 and became eligible for the PGA Tour Champions.